"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Prov. 14:34). The recent contest for president has revolved to large degree around whether the United States has to recover its greatness or has maintained it. Although most have concluded that we are going in the wrong direction. How accurate these assessments are remains a major concern, especially as we set our goals for the future.

In brief, righteousness exalts a nation. Now righteousness consists in conformity to God’s will. As such, it must reflect the teaching of Scripture. Otherwise, we fashion alternatives meant to promote our personal or corporate agendas. These, in turn, are compromised by our sinful condition.

In greater detail, whatever qualifies as our ultimate concern translates into the god we serve. So that we worship the Living Lord, or some expression of idolatry. The latter may take many forms, as the Baal artifact I have in my office. It is purposefully inconspicuous, so not to offend some visitor. It appears from my study of traditional cultures that some would have thought this was simply representative while others supposed that Baal in some sense resided with the artifact.

Idolatry today exists in more complex fashion. For instance, persons are prone to discredit the teaching of Scripture as no longer culturally relevant. This often results in selective acceptance, that seriously alters the original instruction.

It appears evident that the Judeo-Christian tradition played an important role in the founding of our nation. Although this has increasingly been compromised by the notion of political correctness, which is no less acceptable than a religious establishment. In other words, our national heritage advocates freedom of rather than freedom from religion. While bearing in mind that what serves as a religion, as noted above with ultimate concern, is for all practical purposes a religion.

This perception raises a series of current concerns. Most obvious among these is the freedom of religious expression. In this regard, it pertains to the adherents of a given faith, rather than limited to its ecclesiastical structure. Otherwise expressed, the building is not actually the church, but those bonded together in their commitment.

Consider in this regard a case in point. The concept of intelligent design as an alternative to mega-evolution has been rejected as a legitimate educational consideration because it is said to violate the separation of church and state. Conversely, one can advocate intelligent design as an atheist. Moreover, science deals with that which is empirically verifiable, which pertains to micro-evolution but not its more comprehensive counterpart. Unless one introduces some other feature, such as that of fractals, as in chaos theory. If so, then by way of reasoning from some lesser feature to account for that which is greater.

The issue of priority is obviously a factor in the present attempt to evaluate our standing, whether for the better or the worse. As what role the family should play in our social agenda. If down-graded, then having to deal with the symptoms that result. As with the increase of single parent families, and the home alone syndrome.

While we ought not accept the appraisal of others uncritically, neither should we ignore it. This recalls a Muslim friend who considered embracing the Christian faith, until offended by our cultural media. Whereupon, he reasoned that if this is the result of a nation where Christianity is predominant, it is not an inviting alternative. It should come as no surprise that others usually give us a lower grade than we give ourselves. If for no other reason, they resent our efforts to impose our culture on them—as a subtle form of colonialism.

The rise and fall of civilizations has interested me over the years. Not uncommonly, the latter results from the loss of corporate resolve. In other instances, external factors play a larger role. In any case, righteousness exalts a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people. It remains to learn from the past, hope for the future, and engage in the present. Whereas only God can accurately appraise our corporate endeavor.